


Pacific Rim AU lol jk wouldn't that be cool though?

by Koberoo



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Body Horror, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, exploring the ethics of sentient robots through legos, i dont see a tag for jay & zane but thats mostly what this is, like not really cause hes a robot but
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-05-18 07:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14848638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koberoo/pseuds/Koberoo
Summary: Zane struggles with his self worth, or rather, everyone else struggles with it because that robot don't think right. Jay fixes him even though Nya would do it better.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> uhh yeah, it's kind of glum but lemme know if yall want me to write more for this.

Coming back after a battle was always a relief. All of the ninja were happy to be the protectors of Ninjago, but it took its toll on all of them. It was a heavy responsibility, and physically taxing. 

They made it back to the Bounty, Ninjago safe from imminent threat once again. It was dark out, maybe somewhere around 4 in the morning. They’d just finished fighting off a small army of large insects, their numbers were too great but they managed a win by killing the queen. Cole had dealt the fatal blow with Zane covering him. Not too many close calls this time, they were thankful for.   
No obvious close calls, but some concerns developed in Jay.   
Jay had been in the sky on his dragon, communicating the state of the battle, observing what should be done; essentially calling shots. He used his lightning powers liberally, shocking droves of the bug-soldiers to help cut their active numbers down. He took only a minute to assess: 20 seconds calling out tightly knitted formations that they should be wary of, and 40 seconds observing Zane and Cole trying to get close to the queen. Cole was effective but not tactical, swinging a large stone malet to clear a path in front of him, but his back was completely open. Zane was skilled enough in combat to cover him, using his shurikens as kind of bladed-brass knuckles, his ice powers giving him an edge where he needed it, but the insects were harder to anticipate than a normal enemy. Zane stuck close behind Cole, trying to cover the area behind them, but more and more bugs were piling up. Thinking quick, Zane quickly grew an ice wall to their right, successfully altering their charge, but in the long second it took him to call upon his element, a hard, saw-like appendage was piercing through his leg on his left. He pushed the bug off but suffered several more scrapes and gouges to his metal frame trying to protect Cole from their attacks.   
“You better be careful there Zane! Remember I have to do all your repairs later, make my job a little easier, huh!” Jay called out into the com on his ear.   
“Affirmative!” Zane’s reply came short, too occupied with the intensity of combat to banter back. Jay unleashed a few bolts of electricity to assist Zane, it only incapacitated the bugs but at least it helped the nindroid get his footing again.   
The battle ended with Jay covering Zane while he froze parts of the insect queen and Cole smashed them. There was still a bug chomping down on Zane’s metal leg when she fell, along with the rest of the army. 

They were back on the Bounty, most everyone falling asleep within minutes. Zane tried to slink off to his own quarters but Jay stopped him.   
“Oh no you don’t. Come on, some of those repairs can’t wait ‘til morning.”  
“Are you sure you have the energy? Tomorrow you’ll be more rested and-”  
“Yes I’m sure, I barely did anything today; and besides I could probably fix you in my sleep at this point anyway!”   
They headed down to what had become the workshop (it used to be a kind of common room but Jay and Nya needed a place to work more than they needed a common room) Zane using Jay as crutch as a result of his busted leg. The workshop still wasn’t up to par with what Jay had at the junkyard but it functioned well enough. Zane was set down on a wooden bench against the wall, he let out a low whirring that probably translated to a sigh. Jay gathered up some tools that had been scattered and placed them on the table next to the bench.   
“Alright, let’s take a look.” With most of his uniform torn up and discarded, Zane’s entire metallic frame was visible. “Yeesh, it’s like you’re trying to be put out of commission.” Jay chuckled but it tapered off awkwardly. “Okay, so it looks like you messed up your leg pretty bad, a couple of pistons and some wiring damaged, a lot of plating gone… and then that bite near your ankle- also pretty bad. Well, it’s gonna be a good 3 to 4 hours for the necessary stuff, not all the cosmetics which I can do tomorrow; do you wanna watch something? My computer is on the table.” Zane nodded in affirmation and shifted his body down the bench to reach the keyboard. His face was completely void of emotion, which might seem typical for a nindroid but Zane was different, expressive. Jay wondered what he could be hiding. They both knew, so why try to hide it? Why try so hard to act strong and unaffected? 

Zane’s systems were some of the most complex Jay had ever seen. All of the inner-workings of his machinery were meticulously routed under the smooth outer plating: wires, circuit boards, all sorts of metal tendons, pistons, hydraulics; the joints being the most complex and difficult to repair without completely replacing them. Nya was constantly developing better attachments and replacements for Zane, to make him as functional as possible as a bipedal humanoid. His movement alone had improved exponentially once Nya started develop for him; all of her all of her tinkering and experimenting with the Samurai-X suit really paid off for the nindroid. She was just beginning to look into digital intervention for projecting skin, with Zane’s help to keep it compatible with his unique power source.   
It was hard for any of the three to figure out why Zane might have feeling at all. A couple of hypotheses were thrown around initially: some of the wires acted like nerves that lead back to the power-source or the intense circuitry in his head, the power source created a sort of current through his metal plating and any feeling he felt travelled back to, again, either his power-source or head, or maybe it was something less scientific, something soul-related. Zane always became uneasy around the topic of his unexplainable, human traits, it was clear he wished he knew more about his own existence but was wary of what they might discover about him. Dr. Julien was brilliant to conceive of someone like Zane but all of his notes were messily scrawled out of order. Some were also likely missing, either seized by his captors or destroyed for fear of a reproduction being made.   
Jay and Nya were diligent about keeping their notes and discoveries neat and legible. They were also diligent to not be too scientific with studying Zane, he might be a fascinating enigma, but he was still their brother. Mostly they would let Zane ask the questions, instigate the experimenting; they were curious people but they were content to accept Zane as just another person in their team. 

-

Jay was laser-focused (so to speak) on Zane’s leg-repair, it being one of the more technically complex parts to fix: there was a great deal of removal that needed to happen before the replacing began. Jagged pieces of metal were wedged into more delicate sections of wiring. It was like late-game Jenga, trying to remove something without disturbing what was around it.   
Or probably more like Operation.  
For pieces that were too securely wedged, Jay would use a precision laser to weaken the metal, once it’s pliable enough it can be finessed out. Jay made sure that the central power wasn’t connected to whatever he was working on when he used the laser (or any rough equipment). They didn’t know for sure what caused Zane’s physical feeling, but cutting off power to an area seemed to work.   
Jay was just about done removing all the problem-metal when Cole and Kai walked in; Cole with a tired smile and Kai with an uneasy fidgeting in his hands.   
Zane greeted them with a small nod.  
“We’re just worried about your injuries. Are you doing okay?” Cole asked. Zane gave them the most genuine smile-equivalent he could, still trying to mask his weird robo-pain.   
“I’m fine, how are your injuries?”  
“We’re fine, dude, you got stabbed through the leg. That’s kind of a big deal.” Kai spoke up.   
“Why is it a big deal? You’re all fine, free of significant injury, and I’m being repaired.”  
“But, um… doesn’t it hurt?” Cole spoke quietly, not sure if what he was saying was foolish. Zane’s face defaulted to blank again, only for a moment before he responded.   
“No, I don’t think it hurts in the same way that you all experience pain. There’s truly no need to worry about me.”   
They all looked unconvinced, Jay’s expression a little harder to read from behind his safety goggles.   
“You’ve gotta have a little self-preservation, Zane. It’s not healthy to be so... “  
“Flippant.” Kai finished Cole’s sentence. “With your, um, body.”   
“I don’t understand,” Zane sounded the slightest bit irritated, his mechanical words coming out clipped. “If I sustain an attack it’s not life threatening, as all my systems don’t depend on each other to keep me conscious. The same is not true for you, which is why I try to be a shield when I can, because I have the ability to withstand such attacks. Cole, if you had an injury like mine, it would incapacitate you, your leg may never be the same.”   
“Well sure but-”  
“Therefore it’s better that I take it because I can be functional again in a matter of hours where for you it may be a matter of months.”  
“I guess,” Cole trailed off, not able to construct a counter argument that would have any weight.   
“We just don’t want to see you hurt, Zane.” Kai offered.   
“I don’t get hurt.” Zane responded a little too quickly, a little too loud.   
“We don’t want to see you damaged, then!” Kai’s hands were clenched into fists, he was leaning forward. “It’s scary to see you like this, to hear you talk like this? Like your life doesn’t matter?” His voice was fragile. Zane held his gaze until he realized he couldn’t respond. He settled for looking at the door.   
“It’s late, you both should get some sleep.”   
Kai’s face screwed up, trying to hold back his potent feelings. He opened his mouth to say something but Cole put a hand on his shoulder and gestured to the door. Kai stalked off quickly after that. Cole gave Zane a kiss on the temple and left looking troubled. Zane sighed.  
“They’re just people, and they care about you.” Zane hummed, not sure what to say. Several minutes passed in silence, Netflix still paused and the computer sleeping. Jay continued to work, though the fatigue and frustration were starting to show through. He finally put his tools down and took off his gloves, standing up from where he’d been sitting on the floor.   
“I know your system probably better than you do now, you know that right?”   
“What are you-”   
“Zane, we both know you feel pain.” It wasn’t often that someone surprised the nindroid. His shock lasted for only a few moments before being replaced with measured fear.   
“You can’t tell the others.”  
“Zane! You can’t decide that your suffering is somehow less than a humans! Your talking like you deserve pain more than they do because your body is fixable!”  
“Is that not true? My experiencing pain for the sake of saving others from it because of what I am, is, in my opinion, legitimate. They are people I love and I don’t want them injured.” Jay found it very difficult to argue with a nindroid. He still knew that it wasn’t right, but he could see the logic in Zane’s argument. He knelt down in front of the nindroid again, and continued working on fixing his leg.   
“I won’t tell the others… but you have to be more vocal about how you’re doing, with me. I don’t like this whole ‘quiet suffering’ thing.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't expect consistency or any natural chronology... sorry if this is boring but it was fun to write so don't @ me

Nya had been spending a good portion of her time to physical training, but she filled the rest of her time with designing upgrades for Zane. His current body functioned well enough, better than any sort of droid she’d seen before, but there were still things that could work better. She noticed that the necessity of his repairs were going up as well, Jay spent countless hours hodgepodge-ing together spare parts with what he could save from Zane’s form after a fight; at least around the damaged area.

  
Nya spent a lot of time networking.

  
She’d been collecting people that she could borrow resources from, seeing is there’s no way she’d have the funds to buy or rent. Most of her resources came from a kind of scrap yard and a few parts-outlets. She volunteered at a few labs that she could borrow equipment from. She spent a lot of time doing research and learning as much as she could about robotics and experimental AI. She even spent a lot of time trying to decode what Dr. Julien had left behind, but she didn’t have much luck. Most of her breakthroughs came from trial and error: building prototypes, testing new materials, tinkering at all hours of the morning after being woken up with an idea.  
She was currently working on new legs for Zane, his current legs were functional but he had a problem with the hip-joint locking up. There was some plating that catches on the “hip” piece if he tries to lift his leg too high. Nya noticed there were a lot of design flaws just to do with Zane’s protective layer, it being too clunky and inhibiting in combat. Her goal with the new design was to maximize movement and smooth out the surface of the legs without compromising its protecting ability.

  
Nya didn’t know to what degree Zane was okay with “inhuman” ability. It came up when she began to design what the hip joint would perform like. Humans don’t have unlimited circular motion at all angles and Zane won’t either, but he could have a significantly increased range of motion should he request to. Nya figured it couldn't hurt to give him as much free-range as possible then he could use it or he wouldn’t. The main idea was this: Zane’s leg’s range of motion is determined by a sphere that is attached to his hip. The size of the sphere joint can change but there is a window of functionality; a larger sphere grants more movement but requires more energy and increases Zane’s total surface area, something that wasn’t desirable for combat. The initial design for a leg was a combination of hinges that were faster to move (marginally) in two directions, but could lock up and offered a significantly smaller variety of movement. The sphere joint attached the leg to the body by a powerful electromagnet with some modification in the polarity to allow ease of movement along the surface of the joint (i.e. the metal doesn’t scrape every time Zane takes a step). The negative of this design for better movement is that the joint may be weaker. If Zane’s leg comes off he can reattach it, but that’s a lot of lost time in a combat situation. Nya figured there would have to be some field testing done to see how the new joint operated in practice.  
There could even be protective plating installed over the joint, but then movement would be compromised again.

There was the other issue of how each leg would be powered if it’s attached to Zane’s body via magnetism rather than being built out of it. It’s easy enough to have them wirelessly operated but electricity isn’t wireless. Nya could think of three solutions: (1) large battery cells be stored in each leg, (2) connecting the central disk-energy wiring system directly into each leg, or (3) putting a small piece of the disk in each leg. While the third option was tempting so Zane could have optimised movement and not have to worry about a battery dying or a wire being cut, it was unrealistic. They didn’t know enough about how energy is produced by the disk to start chopping it up and distributing it to power things that could be powered in other, less-rare ways. A battery made sense to maintain mobility but then they would have to worry about it’s charge. There are a number of algorithms involving minimal energy usage that could be implemented, but even then it was an unnecessary stress.

She decided that an artery-like cord would have to feed the leg power. Nya wanted to include a stabilizer that connected the legs to the torso just to be sure that Zane could stand up straight. The focused electromagnetic field did well to keep him upright but an extra stabilizer can’t hurt, and it’ll protect the main power cord.

\---

It took many weeks of production and development to finally get the legs to trial. It was Nya’s main focus when not on missions to work on making Zane safer and more durable. Jay might also be interested in development but his skills were more about quick and extremely effective repairs; crafty solutions when they didn’t have the luxury of time. Nya had more experience designing and executing anyway.

Zane walked into the Bounty Workshop, Nya’s work area was twice as messy as Jay’s. Her need for parts and specialized equipment required more space which they didn’t necessarily have. Cole walked in behind Zane.  
          “Good morning to both of you! I hope your ready for a long day of experimenting. I have a series of tests and maneuvers i want you to do today, Zane, but first we have to download some new software; to calibrate your new movement capabilities.” Nya was always anxious to test out some new equipment or parts but she seemed especially zealous today. Her preliminary explanation seemed sharpened to a point just so she could begin recording data as soon as possible. “I’m going to get the download underway so while that installs I can get you fitted.” She ushered Zane over to an empty spot on a low bench. She connected Zane’s hard-drive to her computer and began the file transfer.  
          “So, I’ve actually made a completely new pelvic-piece for you, seeing as we’re completely replacing your hinge joints with magnetic joints. I’m just going to start working on removing your current, um, pelvis and legs, Is that okay? And this is just for testing, we’ll probably reinstall them tonight anyway.”  
          “Yes, that’s fine.” Zane replied, offering a comfortable smile.  
          “Great,”  
The installation was done in about 15 minutes but the separation of the torso took about an hour.  
          “Cole can you pick him up so I can detach the main power cables? I’m going to…” she trailed off and scurried over to snatch a low stool from Jay’s side of the workshop. “Okay, we’re going to move both parts of him to this stool so you can hold him and not be in my way, cool?”  
          “Yeah, no problem.” The transfer to the stool was a bit shaky, Nya had to lift the legs and pivot them to rest soundly on the stool. Cole was holding Zane by the “rib cage” to move him and now had both of his arms wrapped around him from the back.  
          “You doing okay Zane?” Nya asked while locating where the torso cable connects with the left-leg cable.  
          “I’m fine.”  
          “Cole, how long can you hold Zane?”  
          “He’s not that heavy, how long do you need me to hold him?”  
          “10 minutes max.”  
          “Yeah that’s no problem.” He was very confident. Nya and Zane shared a look, something that probably meant _‘fucking super strength’_. Nya had the power disconnected in 6 minutes. She wrestled the legs over and up onto her work table, then examined the new pelvis and legs.  
          “This is going to be a little tricky. The legs are connected by magnetism from an electromagnet which obviously won’t work until the power connected… Oh, duh,” She moved the old legs again, this time next to the table on the bench where Zane was sitting previously. She then unceremoniously swiped all other materials off of the table and into a bin on the floor.  
          “Okay, Cole can you put Zane on the table laying down?” Cole nodded and complied.  
Nya set to work connecting and installing and such. She was done in another 30 minutes.  
          “Okay, okay… Zane do you want to run a diagnostic scan to make sure everything is working properly?” He nodded, his eyes dimming slightly to denote an internal process. A few seconds passed.  
          “It would appear that I do not have power in my left foot.” Nya’s eyebrows furrowed and she feverishly looked over the hardware, removing plating as she went. She paused and fiddled with some wiring.  
          “How about now?”  
          “Ah, power restored.”  
          “Excellent! Okay, you ready to take your new legs for a spin?”  
          “Certainly,”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapters that make you go hmm...

“I only retain the sensors in my hands now,” Zane stated quietly. He held one of Cole’s hands in both of his, trying to imagine what it would be like to be human. It was difficult for him to invent sensation, he was never human to begin with so there was no memory to base it off of.

“You can only feel in your hands?"

“Yes, out of necessity.”

“Necessity?” Bewilderment was barely detectable in his voice.

"It is regularly observable that humans tend to use their hands to see. I find myself feeling to see often enough that I’ve requested to Nya that I keep feeling,” He turned both of his hands palm-up. “... in my hands.”

“So, you can’t feel anything in the rest of your body?”

“Only what’s necessary: pressure, damage indicators, extreme temperature.” He counted them off on Cole’s fingers.

“What can you feel in your hands?”

“The same, only they’re more sensitive. There is a kind of surface recognition, a catalog of information to help me decipher what I’m feeling.”

“Can you tell when something is soft?”

“Sure.”

“Can you read braille?”

“I can read braille with my eyes, Cole.” Zane chuckled briefly.

“I know, but, can you?”

“Yes. I think seeing and feeling are more similar in process to me than they are to humans; since the information is converted to be uniform.”

 

It was early evening, Zane and Cole were occupying a living room-type space. The other ninja were out doing their own activities. Nya was definitely in the workshop, Jay was most likely also there, Kai, Jay and Lloyd may have mentioned going out somewhere but Zane didn’t listen for specifics. The two were huddled together at the end of a long couch.

“We’re all worried about you, you know.”

“Cole, do we have to talk about this?”

"I’d like to.” It still came out as a question, but Zane knew he couldn’t say no.

“Alright, why are you all worried?”

“Well, because,” Cole seemed ready to say a lot but couldn’t seem to organize it. “You just seem so ready to sacrifice yourself again, and Jay and I feel like you’re putting yourself in more danger than you need to be. We’re all very capable as fighters, you don’t need to sustain the kind of damage that you have been.”

These kinds of conversations were always tense. Zane felt strongly about his decisions, his actions and why he came to this mindset. He couldn’t understand why the other ninja were so concerned about him. He took a moment to collect himself, gaze fixed at the far end of the couch.

"If hadn’t defeated the Overlord-”

“Zane,”

“What would’ve happened, Cole? Who would’ve stopped him?” Zane was looking in Cole’s eyes now. “If I hadn’t stopped him, there was a chance- an outcome- in which none of you survived. I think you can understand why I couldn’t let that unfold.” He had a firm grip on Cole’s hand, a slight tremor diffused through them from the stiffness in his elbow joints. “If there is anything I can do to ensure your protection-”

“You died, Zane!” Cole stood up, pulling his hands away.

“So did you!” Zane stood as well.

“But you were gone! Your body was destroyed! There was nothing left-” Cole’s voice broke. “You were gone for two years,”

“I am back now.”

“We didn’t know you would come back! We didn’t know you were still alive! You don’t have another half of an energy disk laying around… What you have is what you’ve got and you need to be more careful.” Cole crushed Zane in a hug so tight that his damage indicators almost pinged. “I can’t lose you again. It tore us apart last time.” Zane quickly reciprocated the hug. He thought about how nice it was to have a solid Cole again, it almost made him miss having feeling-sensors in the rest of his body.

“I think you’re forgetting that you died too.” Zane pulled away, his hands coming to rest on Cole’s waist.

“I didn’t die, really, I just became a ghost. My soul, or whatever was still here, with the team.”

“It wasn’t my plan to be gone for so long.” There was the slightest indignation in Zane’s tone. “If I hadn’t been captured by Chen I would have been back sooner. Much sooner.” Cole was quiet for a moment, thinking.

“Why… if-” Cole’s expression of bewilderment quickly withered into something more solemn. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why- God, what am I saying… I guess you couldn’t’ve known what would happen that day.” He wrapped his arms around Zane once again. “I just missed you so much. Even after two years… things didn’t look like they’d ever get better.”  
Cole sat back down, his body sagged into the yielding couch, exhaustion pulling him down. Zane sat down next to him like before, the sulk in his back much less noticeable.

 

“What was it like while I was gone?”

“Did we never tell you?” Zane shook his head.

“We’ve been busy up until now. I never asked because I figured… you would not want to talk about it.”

“Well, you’re right, I really don’t.”

Zane wondered if he’d pushed too far this time. Cole was fairly open but more prone to shutting down emotionally, Zane tried to let him talk at his own pace. But sometimes he wasn’t so patient. Cole sighed.

“Everyone split off after your memorial: I stayed with my dad for a bit, I’m sure Jay went back to his parents. I’m not sure were Kai went but Nya stayed with Lloyd and his family. Jay seemed to adapt well, of course he missed you, but he was better at hiding it. Kai got into some real nasty shit- uh… fighting and drinking and stuff. Only heard about it when we were all on Chen’s island, though. He might’ve taken it the hardest, either that or he just coped with it the worst.”

“And you?”

“I stayed with my dad until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I ran into some people who worked at a lumber yard and they offered me a job. It seemed like a good enough plan, no one knew who I was, no one could remind me of what happened... “

“You tried to forget?”

“Hardly… It was all I could think of, every day for two years. You were all I could think of.” Zane knew how much pain Cole had been in after the fall of the Overlord, but hearing Cole say that he was missed that much sent a flutter through him.

He wasn’t sure why he assumed there would be an imbalance in grief if he, a nindroid, died. The rest of the ninja saw him as an equal regardless of his corporeal form. He worried that they might treat him differently, lesser, more expendable because of it; maybe he subconsciously placed himself in that position should his suspicions (some might say paranoia) ever be confirmed. It was obvious they treated him just as they would any other human;

Zane wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

A searing pain shot across the front of Zane’s chest. He doubled over, grabbing Cole’s shoulder for support.

“Zane? What’s wrong?” The pain only lasted for a moment and then it was gone. A few plates shifted and he sat back up, concern flashing on his face.

“What was that?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”

“But what was it?”

“Um, pain, in my chest.”

“Your disk maybe?” Zane looked down to where his obscure energy source was located. To think that was the cause was plausible.

“I don’t know, I’ve never felt something that strong before.” Numbers and calculations were flying through Zane’s head: possible explanations, processing what pain feels like, how his energy source may be connected to his consciousness. He sat still, eyes shifting from left to right.

“I thought you couldn’t feel pain without some kind of sensor…” Zane didn’t respond, didn’t offer a hypothesis, he was too overloaded with information to process what he was being told.

“You know what, let’s go see Nya. She’ll know what to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the text formatting but uh there aint no easy INdent is there now?


	4. Chapter 4

“Hard to say, doesn’t look like there’s any permanent damage anywhere, or any evidence to start… investigating from…” 

Nya had Zane hooked up to the computer to run diagnostics; she went over Zane’s hardware herself, removing panelling to get a clearer look. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. 

“And- let me get this right- you  _ felt _ this pain in your chest?”

“Yes,” 

“How is that possible? Almost all of your sensors have been removed. Are you sure what you were feeling was pain?” Nya asked, her tone bordering on irritated. 

“From what I’ve experienced with artificial pain, and what I know about others’ experiences, I’ve come to a fairly solid conclusion that… that is what I felt.” It didn’t go unnoticed by Cole how clinical Zane’s sentences were, speaking for the sake of informing. They sat for awhile in silence, the diagnostic program running. Nya was staring fixedly at the computer screen, quickly reading over each process-check. Cole sat next to Zane holding his hand, hoping that it was of some comfort. The diagnostic finished. 

“This doesn’t make any sense, there isn’t even a blip of something that went wrong.” 

“Cole, you wish to say something?” Zane inquired without looking up. Cole was jarred from his thoughts and took a deep breath. 

“Well, speaking as someone with minimal knowledge of… robotics and such, maybe this could be comparable to a human, uh, affliction?” 

“What, like, heartburn? Which is a digestive problem, something completely irrelevant to Zane’s robotic composition?” 

“Okay well maybe not heartburn, I just mean maybe there was a problem elsewhere that only presented symptoms in the chest-area.” 

“But there was no history or recording of a problem in the diagnostic report. No irregularities showed up at all from the past hour.” Nya began scrolling back through the report. Cole shrugged. 

“Just something to consider.” 

Nya put her hands on her hips and huffed. 

“If it’s a non-mechanical problem you should probably ask Wu or Borg, even. I can’t help if there’s no evidence of the cause.” 

Cole began to say something but Zane interrupted. 

“Thank you Nya, I’m sure you did all you could.” 

 

They started down the hallway the workshop was connected to. The wooden walls were blank besides the occasional window. 

“Where do you think Wu is?” Cole asked. 

“Probably on the ship.” 

Cole chuckled, not really sure if it was a joke. 

“Do you think what you’re experiencing is non-mechanical, like Nya said?” 

“If there isn’t any evidence in the report… I can’t think of what else it might be.” They heard quick footsteps. 

 

“Zane! Good, okay so first of all fuck meditating, that won’t answer any of your questions.” Zane and Cole turned around to see Nya quickly walking towards them. 

“Nya? That was quick. Did you find out anything?” Cole asked.

“Yes, well kind of. I have a theory.” She paused to compose herself. Cole and Zane shared a look. “So, I think what’s happened is that you’ve activated some kind of back-up nervous system by removing the physical nerves throughout your body. Dr. Julien probably anticipated that something might happen to your nerves and they wouldn’t be able to be replaced or repaired- what have you- so he developed an early version of a digital, not-quite-physical nervous system.” She paused to see if they were following. Zane was rapt but Cole seemed to be struggling along. “So, I’m thinking that there are different kinds of sensors at different points of Zane’s body that would record or react or whatever if damage has taken place at or between these points.” 

“Have you ever found something like while you were working on me?” Zane asked quickly.

“There are a lot of things we’ve found in you that we weren’t sure the purpose of. Dr. Julien built you to last, buddy. We have a book somewhere of recorded anomalies but I think Jay had it last… It might take a while to find.

I also had another Hypothesis that perhaps there aren’t sensors bouncing off of a few points but instead there are calculated vertices that your computer brain computes of where each part of you should be. Sort of like a mocap suit. It could explain that weird, uh, pain you had earlier; something was different and not where it was expected to be, so once the system recognized something off, now that it had been turned on, it interpreted that abnormality into pain!” She sounded a little too excited to be sharing this news. Cole looked deep in thought but emerged for a moment to interject.

“How would the system know to come online?” 

“It was probably the computer not receiving enough data from the physical nerves, so it switched to the back-up nervous system. Or that’s the concept, in so many words.” Cole nodded. 

“Is there a way to turn it off?” Zane inquired. Cole and Nya went silent and stared at Zane in untraceable concern.

“Why would you-” 

“Theoretically.” Zane cut Nya off before she could interrogate him on the meaning behind the question. She thought for a moment and shrugged. 

“Probably, It’s not like your system has many locks or barred programs. I’m sure between my and Jay’s programming skills we could turn it off.” Her earlier excitement had faded. There was a significant silence.

“How many vertices or sensors would there be?” Zane asked. 

“With your processing power? Could be thousands! You’ve got a lot of parts to look after.” 

“What about all of the parts and repairs that you and Jay have done on me? How would these new attachments affect the program?” Nya put her hands on her hips. She still hadn’t taken off her work gloves. 

“Well, if the program was created as a backup for once your physical nerves were damaged beyond repair, then it might have some kind of mapping program where it detects new or different appendages that aren’t part of your original design. Then it creates a bank of data where each of these points are over a period of time and once it’s sufficiently sure that these new parts are in their intended place of use it cements the new vertices. Or… that’s the theory that I just came up with, anyway. There’s a lot I don’t know right now and- honestly I should be writing this down.” Nya took out her phone and started frantically typing. Cole tried to ask a question but she put up a finger to silence him. “Don’t want to lose this thought.” 

After several minutes of her typing Cole spoke up again. 

“Nya, why don’t we walk back to your workshop so you can write and me and Zane can be nearby for questions?” 

“Sure, but I gotta walk and type.” 

 

Once, back in the shop, Nya seamlessly switched from typing on a document on her phone to one on her computer. Her typing seemed even more frantic now that it was accentuated by the clicking keys. Zane looked deep in thought, or perhaps deep in his programming, Cole thought. He wondered how much of Zane’s code could be accessed by the robot himself, or if it was something as unconscious as thinking. Could he detect things that aren’t even in use if they’re in his coding?

“Hey Zane, what are you thinking about?” Zane’s eyes refocused on Cole’s face. 

“A lot of things.” He took Cole’s hand and pressed it to his own metal arm. His eyebrows furrowed. “I can feel it. I can’t figure out how a system based on vertices could understand neutral feeling.” 

“It could be two or more systems actually,” Nya called over her shoulder, her eyes not leaving the computer screen. 

“Oh.” 

“How would we know?” Cole asked.

“I have a couple of ideas.” 


End file.
